Expanded addressee sort/listing

ABSTRACT

An enhanced email program/service is provided to facilitate provisioning for a user an expanded addressee ordered listing of emails including expanded listing entries for emails addressed to one or more addressees of interest as secondary and/or member addressees, in addition to listing entries where the one or more addressees of interest are addressed as primary addressees. In various embodiments, the enhancements include facilities that enable the user to easily request for the expanded listing, from an addressee ordered or non-addressee ordered listing of emails, with or without explicitly specifying the addressee or addressees of interest. In response, the email program/service provisions the expanded listing, including the re-ordering if necessary, accordingly. As a result, the user may easily obtain a listing of all emails addressed to one or more addressees of interest, independent of the position and/or manner the addressees of interest are addressed.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation application of application Ser. No.09/796,767, filed on Feb. 28, 2001 now U.S. Pat. No. 6,941,346, entitled“EMAIL—EXPANDED ADDRESSEE SORT/LISTING”. This continuation applicationclaims priority to the Ser. No. 09/786,767 application.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to the field of data processing. Morespecifically, the present invention relates to the functions of emailprograms/services associated with facilitating user viewing andprocessing of their emails.

2. Background Information

With advances in integrated circuit, microprocessor, networking andcommunication technologies, increasing number of devices, in particular,digital computing devices, are being interconnected together. Theincreased interconnectivity of computing devices have led to wide spreadadoption of applications “connecting” a large number ofusers/organizations together, such as the world wide web and email.

To many users, email, whether it is provided through a program (such asLotus Notes, available from IBM of Armonk, N.Y.) or a service (such asHotmail, available from Microsoft Network of Redmond, Wash.), has becomea fundamental medium of communication just like telephone. Even for themoderate reliant users, it is not unusual to have hundreds if notthousands of emails accumulated in their “inboxes”, “sent folders” orother subject specific “folders”. [As those skilled in the art wouldappreciate, “inboxes”, “folders” in general and “sent folders” inparticular are typically logical views of the email records being held,i.e. undeleted.]

Prior art email programs/services typically offer only standard sortingfunctions 116 a–116 b that sort email listings within a folder (e.g.sent folder 106) in either ascending or descending order in accordancewith the content of one of the listing fields, such as “To” field 108(also referred to as “addressee” field) or “Date Sent” field 112, asillustrated in FIGS. 1 a–1 b. If the sort field is the “addressee”field, the sorting and therefore, the resulted listing 114 is based onthe primary addressee (i.e. the first enumerated addressee in accordancewith the spatial order of enumeration), as illustrated in FIG. 1 b.Other addressees, referred to as secondary addressee, i.e. subsequent(or non first) enumerated addressees (in accordance with the spatialorder of enumeration), or implied addressees (as in the case of groupaddressees) are not taken into consideration. A group addressee is anaddressee that implicitly addresses multiple recipients (often referredto as member addressees of the group addressees) at the same time, suchas example addressee “dept99” shown in FIG. 1 a. For the example groupaddress “dept99”, it implicitly addresses all members of Department 99at the same time. Typically, group addressees are set up by “users”having the requisite “administration” authority, such as an emailsystem's administrator.

Thus, for a user with a relatively large number of accumulated emails(in a “folder”), it is rather difficult under the prior art to find allthe emails addressed to an addressee of interest (within the “folder”),as the addressee of interest is not always addressed as the primaryaddressee. The addressee of interest may be addressed as a secondaryaddressee or indirectly via a group addressee.

While some email programs/services offer a “find” or “advanced find”function to allow a user to find emails based on certain contents incertain fields, many users consider these “find” or “advanced find”functions difficult to use. Moreover, it can only locate the other emaillistings where an addressee of interest is addressed as a primary orsecondary addressee. These “find” or “advanced find” functions areunable to identify for a user, emails addressed to certain groupaddressees where the addressee of interest is a member of these groupaddressees.

Thus, a more user friendly approach to allowing a user to locate emailsaddressed to an addressee of interest, independent of the addressingposition and/or the addressing manner, is desired.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An enhanced email program/service is provided to facilitate provisioningfor a user an expanded listing of emails including expanded listingentries for emails that address one or more addressees of interest assecondary and/or member addressees, in addition to listing entries foremails where the one or more addressees of interest are addressed asprimary addressees. In various embodiments, the enhancements includefacilities that enable the user to easily request for the expandedlisting, from an addressee or non-addressee ordered listing, with orwithout explicitly specifying the addressee or addressees of interest.In response, the email program/service provisions the expanded listingaccordingly, including re-ordering the listing in ascending/descendingorder of the addressees, if necessary. As a result, the user may easilyobtain a listing of all emails addressed to one or more addressees ofinterest, independent of the position and/or the manner the addresseesof interest are addressed.

In one embodiment, the enhancements include facilities that enable auser to select an addressee of interest among the listed primaryaddressees from an addressee ordered listing, and request for theexpanded listing for the selected addressee of interest. In anotherembodiment, the enhancements include facilities that enable a user toselect an addressee of interest among the listed primary addressees froma listing ordered by one or more non-addressee based criteria, andrequest re-ordering by addressee and expansion for the selectedaddressee of interest at the same time. In yet another embodiment, theenhancements include facilities that enable a user to simply requestexpansion for all primary addressees, including re-ordering byaddressee, if necessary.

In various embodiments, the email program/service is implemented by wayof a client/server architecture. In one embodiment, the enhancements aremade to the client, in another, to the server, and in yet another,distributively to both the client and the server.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

The present invention will be described by way of exemplary embodiments,but not limitations, illustrated in the accompanying drawings in whichlike references denote similar elements, and in which:

FIGS. 1 a–1 b illustrate an user interface view of exemplary addresseesort/listing functions of prior art email programs/services;

FIGS. 2 a–2 b illustrate an user interface view of the expandedaddressee sort/listing function of the present invention, in accordancewith one embodiment;

FIG. 3 illustrates the operational flow of the relevant aspects of theenhanced email program/service of the present invention of theembodiment of FIGS. 2 a–2 b;

FIGS. 4 a–4 b illustrate an user interface view of the expandedaddressee sort/listing function of the present invention, in accordancewith another embodiment;

FIG. 5 illustrates the operational flow of the relevant aspects of theenhanced email program/service of the present invention of theembodiment of FIGS. 4 a–4 b;

FIGS. 6 a–6 c illustrate an user interface view of the expandedaddressee sort/listing function of the present invention, in accordancewith yet another embodiment;

FIGS. 7 a–7 b illustrate the operational flow of the relevant aspects ofthe enhanced email program/service of the present invention of theembodiment of FIGS. 6 a–6 b;

FIG. 8 illustrates an example data organization suitable for use totrack an expanded list of emails of an addressee to practice the presentinvention, in accordance with one embodiment; and

FIG. 9 illustrates an example computer system suitable for use topractice the present invention, in accordance with one embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In the following description, various aspects of the present inventionwill be described. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in theart that the present invention may be practiced with only some or allaspects of the present invention. For purposes of explanation, specificnumbers, materials and configurations are set forth in order to providea thorough understanding of the present invention. However, it will alsobe apparent to one skilled in the art that the present invention may bepracticed without the specific details. In other instances, well knownfeatures are omitted or simplified in order not to obscure the presentinvention.

Parts of the description will be presented in terms of operationsperformed by a processor based device, using terms such as data, tables,requesting, selecting, supplementing, displaying, and the like,consistent with the manner commonly employed by those skilled in the artto convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art. Aswell understood by those skilled in the art, the quantities take theform of electrical, magnetic, or optical signals capable of beingstored, transferred, combined, and otherwise manipulated throughmechanical and electrical components of the processor based device; andthe term processor include microprocessors, micro-controllers, digitalsignal processors, and the like, that are standalone, adjunct orembedded.

Various operations will be described as multiple discrete steps in turn,in a manner that is most helpful in understanding the present invention,however, the order of description should not be construed as to implythat these operations are necessarily order dependent. In particular,these operations need not be performed in the order of presentation.Further, the description repeatedly uses the phrase “in one embodiment”,which ordinarily does not refer to the same embodiment, although it may.

First Embodiment

Referring now to FIGS. 2 a–2 b, wherein two block diagrams illustratingan end user interface view of the expanded addressee sort/listingfunction of the enhanced email program/service of the present invention,in accordance with one embodiment, are shown. Under this embodiment, auser may easily request an addressee ordered listing of emails beexpanded for a selected addressee of interest (among the listed primaryaddressees), supplementing the addressee ordered listing (whichconventionally includes listing entries for emails where the selectedaddressee of interest is addressed as the primary addressee) withlisting entries for emails where the selected addressee of interest isalso addressed as a secondary or member addressee.

As illustrated in FIG. 2 a, example end user interface 200 of theenhanced email program/service of the present invention includes menu202 of “drop down” commands, i.e. “File”, “Edit” and so forth, and menu204 of action icons. Further, example end user interface 200 includessent item view 206 (i.e. a “folder content” view of the sent emails)having “To” column 208, “Subject” column 210, and “Date Sent” column212, listing sent emails 214. For the example illustration, the emailsare ordered in an ascending manner based on the content of the addresseefield, i.e. “To” column 208, which means sent emails 214 are ordered bytheir primary addressees. As will be readily apparent from thedescription to follow, the present invention may also be practiced withemails ordered in a descending manner.

In accordance with this embodiment of the present invention, theenhanced email program/service further includes enhancements thatfacilitate a user in selecting an addressee of interest among the listedprimary addressees (e.g. adam “at” xyz.com 222) of the addressee orderedlisting of emails 214 displayed, and request 224 the addressee orderedlisting of emails be expanded for the selected addressee of interest.More specifically, the enhanced email program/service includesenhancements that facilitate a user in requesting the addressee orderedlisting of emails 214 (for the addressee of interest selected among thelisted primary addressees) be supplemented with listing entries foremails where the selected addressee of interest is also addressed as asecondary or member addressee.

In preferred ones of the various embodiments, expansion of groupaddressees to determine whether the selected addressee of interest isimplicitly addressed for being a member addressee of a specified groupaddressee is performed only if such “group addressee expansion” optionis selected among the various options available for selection in theuser's profile. The selection may be facilitated as other prior art useroptions. For ease of understanding, the remaining description willassume the user has selected this “group addressee expansion” option inhis/her user profile.

As illustrated in FIG. 2 b, in response to the request to expand theordered listing for the selected addressee of interest (among the listedprimary addressees), the enhanced email program/service of the presentinvention expands the listing entries of emails 214 accordingly. Theconventional listing entries 214 for the selected addressee of interest,e.g. “adam”, are supplemented with listing entries of emails where theselected addressee of interest is a secondary addressee (e.g. listingentry 216 a), or a member addressee (e.g. listing entries 216 b). Inthis example, “adam” is a member addressee of group addressee “dept99”by virtue of its inclusion among the member addressees of group address“dept99” when an “administrator” created or subsequently updated thegroup address.

Listing entry 216 a represents an added listing entry for an emailaddressed to another party (“frank”) as the primary addressee, with“adam”, the addressee of interest (selected among the listed primaryaddressees) addressed as a secondary addressee. Listing entries 216 brepresent added listing entries for emails addressed to a groupaddressee (“dept99”) as the primary addressee, with “adam”, theaddressee of interest (selected among the listed primary addressees)implicitly addressed as a member addressee.

In one embodiment, selection of an addressee of interest among theprimary addressees of listing entries 214 is facilitated by supporting auser in clicking on a primary addressee of one of the displayed listingentries 214, using e.g. a cursor control device. The request to expandthe listing entries of the addressee of interest (selected among thelisted primary addressees) is facilitated by displaying the request,e.g. “Include” request (224, FIG. 2 a), among a list of request/commandoptions, in response to a user “right clicking”, after having selectedthe addressee of interest (among the listed primary addressees), usinge.g. a cursor control device. Such facilitation is known in the art, andwill not be further described.

Further, the supplemental listing entries are inserted directly belowthe supplemented listing entries of the addressee of interest.Additionally, the supplemental listing entries are visuallydistinguished by such techniques as indentation, italicizing, and soforth.

Thus, it can be seen, the expanded listing supplemented with listingentries identifying emails where the addressee of interest (selectedamong the listed primary addressees of interest) is also addressed as asecondary or a member addressee, may be easily provided for the user,through a few mouse clicks (or equivalent key strokes). Accordingly,under the present invention, it is much easier (as compared to the priorart) for a user to locate or identify an email addressed to an addresseeof interest, independent of the addressing position or the manner theaddressee of interest is addressed, as all emails addressed to theaddressee of interest (within the “current” view, such as illustrated“sent” view 206′ of FIGS. 4 a–4 b) may be quickly listed for the user.

FIG. 3 illustrates operational flow 300 of the relevant aspects of theenhancements made to the email program/service of the present inventionfor the embodiment of FIGS. 2 a–2 b. As illustrated, in response to thereceipt of a request 301 to supplement the email listing entries of anaddressee of interest (selected among listed primary addressees of anaddressee ordered listing of emails), the enhanced email program/serviceof the present invention at block 302 attempts to select a “next” listedemail. If the operation is unsuccessful (“yes” branch of block 304), asit will be the case eventually after all listed emails have beenprocessed, the process terminates. If the operation is successful (“no”branch of block 304), the process continues at block 306. Note thatwhich listed email constitutes the “next” listed email to be processedis dependent on where processing of the listed emails starts, which neednot be the email where the addressee of interest is selected. Theprocessing may start from any arbitrary one of the listed emails.

At block 306, the enhanced email program/service determines if theprimary addressee of listed email being analyzed is the same as theaddressee of interest (selected among the listed primary addressees). Ifthe result of the determination is affirmative, processing returns toblock 302. If the result of the determination is negative, the enhancedemail program/service further determines whether the addressee ofinterest (selected among the listed primary addressees) is a secondaryor member addressee of the email being analyzed, block 308. In oneembodiment, the enhanced email program/service makes the “secondaryaddressee” determination by examining the other addressees in thesecondary addressing positions. In one embodiment, the examinationincludes the secondary addressing positions in the “cc” list, the “bcc”list (if applicable) as well as the “To” list. In one embodiment, theenhanced email program/service makes the “member addressee”determination by accessing addressee books accessible to the user todetermine if any of the addressees of the email being examined, primaryor non-primary, is a group addressee; and if it is, whether theaddressee of interest is a member of the group addressee.

For the illustrated embodiment, if there is no address book, or theaccessed address books do not resolve an addressee of the email beingexamined as a group addressee, the addressee is assumed to be anindividual addressee. Further, for the illustrated embodiment, if anaddressee of the email being examined is resolved to be a groupaddressee, the enhanced email program/service makes only one pass indetermining whether the addressee of interest is a member addressee.That is, the enhanced email program/service assumes all memberaddressees of a group addressee are individual addressees, and there areno group addressees contained with a group addressee requiring recursiveprocessing. However, in an alternate embodiment, one or morepredetermined iterations of recursive processing may be performed.

If it is determined at block 308 that the addressee of interest(selected among the listed primary addressees) is an addressee of theemail being examined, e.g. a secondary or a member addressee, theenhanced email program/service creates and orderly inserts a “duplicate”of the listing entry into the listing for the email examined, block 310.If it is determined at block 308 that the addressee of interest(selected among the listed primary addressees) is not an addressee ofthe email examined, secondary or member of group addressee, processingreturns to block 302.

As alluded to earlier, eventually after all listed emails have beenprocessed, the attempted select operation of block 302 results in noemail being returned. At such time, the process terminates.

Second Embodiment

Referring now to FIGS. 4 a–4 b, wherein two block diagrams illustratingan end user interface view of the expanded addressee sort/listingfunction of the enhanced email program/service of the present invention,in accordance with another embodiment, are shown. Under this embodiment,a user may easily request a listing of emails (ordered by one or morenon-addressee criteria) to be re-ordered by addressee, with the listingentries for an addressee of interest (selected among the listed primaryaddressees) expanded at the same time.

As illustrated in FIG. 4 a, similar to the earlier described embodiment,example end user interface 200′ of the enhanced email program/service ofthe present invention includes menu 202′ of “drop down” commands, i.e.“File”, “Edit” and so forth, and menu 204′ of action icons. Further,example end user interface 200′ includes sent item view 206′ (i.e. a“folder content” view of the sent emails) having “To” column 208′,“Subject” column 210′, and “Date Sent” column 212′, listing sent emails214′. For the example illustration, emails 214′ are ordered by one ormore non-addressee criteria, e.g. by “Date Sent” 212′.

In accordance with this embodiment of the present invention, theenhanced email program/service further includes enhancements thatfacilitate a user in selecting an addressee of interest among the listedprimary addressees (e.g. adam “at” xyz.com) 222′ of the non-addresseeordered listing of emails 214′, and requesting the listing of emails bere-ordered by addressee, as well as having the listing entries of theaddressee of interest (selected among the primary addressees) beexpanded, 404 a or 404 b. More specifically, the listing entries of theaddressee of interest (selected among the listed primary addressee) areto be expanded to include listing entries for emails where the addresseeof interest is a secondary or a member addressee.

In response, the enhanced email program/service of the present inventionre-orders the non-addressee ordered listing of entries, and expands thelisting entries of emails 214′ accordingly, supplementing the listingentries for the addressee of interest (selected among the listed primaryaddressees, e.g. “adam”) with listing entries of emails where theaddressee of interest is a secondary addressee (e.g. listing entry 216a′) or a member addressee (e.g. listing entries 216 b′).

As the earlier described first embodiment, listing entry 216 a′represents an added listing entry for an email addressed to anotherparty (“frank”) as the primary addressee, with “adam”, the addressee ofinterest (selected among the listed primary addressees) addressed as asecondary addressee. Listing entries 216 b′ represent added listingentries for emails addressed to a group addressee (“dept99”) as theprimary addressee, with “adam”, the addressee of interest (selectedamong the listed primary addressees) implicitly addressed as a memberaddressee.

Similarly, selection of an addressee of interest among the listedprimary addressees of the ordered listing entries 214′ is facilitated bysupporting a user in clicking on a primary addressee of one of thedisplayed listing entries 214′, using e.g. a cursor control device. Therequest to simultaneously re-order the listing by addressee and expandthe listing entries of the addressee of interest (selected among thelisted primary addressees) is facilitated by displaying the request(e.g. “sort ascending expanded” 404 a of FIG. 4 a), among a list ofrequest/command options 402 a–402 b and 404 a–404 b, in response to auser “right clicking”, after having selected the primary addressee,using e.g. a cursor control device. Such facilitation is also known inthe art, and will not be further described.

Further, the supplemental listing entries are inserted directly belowthe supplemented listing entries of the addressee of interest.Additionally, the supplemental listing entries may be visuallydistinguished by techniques such as indentation, italicizing, and soforth.

Thus, it can be seen, the re-ordering and expansion of a listing toinclude listing entries identifying emails where an addressee ofinterest (selected among listed primary addressees) is addressed as asecondary or a member addressee may be easily provided for the user,through a few mouse clicks (or equivalent key strokes). Accordingly,under the present invention, it is much easier (as compared to the priorart) for a user to order, locate or identify an email addressed to anaddressee of interest, independent of the addressing position or themanner the addressee of interest is addressed, as all emails of theaddressee of interest (within the “current” view, such as illustrated“sent” view 206′ of FIGS. 4 a–4 b) may be quickly listed for the user.

FIG. 5 illustrates operational flow 500 of the relevant aspects of theenhancements made to the email program/service of the present inventionfor the embodiment of FIGS. 4 a–4 b. As illustrated, in response to thereceipt of a request 501 to re-order a non-addressee ordered listing ofemails, and supplement the email listing entries of an addressee ofinterest (selected among the listed primary addressee of the orderedlisting of emails), the enhanced email program/service of the presentinvention at block 502 first re-orders the non-addressee orderedlisting. The re-ordering may be performed using any one of a number ofsorting/ordering techniques known in the prior art. Thereafter, theenhanced email program/service of the present invention at block 504performs the operations earlier described referencing FIG. 3 tosupplement the listing entries for the addressee of interest (selectedamong the listed primary addressees) with listing entries of the emailswhere the addressee of interest is addressed as a secondary or a memberaddressee, as described earlier.

Third Embodiment

Referring now to FIGS. 6 a–6 b, wherein two block diagrams illustratingan end user interface view of the expanded addressee sort/listingfunction of the enhanced email program/service of the present invention,in accordance with yet another embodiment, are shown. Under thisembodiment, a user may easily request a listing of emails to bere-ordered by addressee and expanded for all primary addressees, asdescribed earlier for an addressee of interest selected among the listedprimary addressee of interest. In other words, all listed primaryaddressees are considered addressees of interest.

As illustrated in FIG. 6 a, similar to the earlier describedembodiments, example end user interface 200″ of the enhanced emailprogram/service of the present invention includes menu 202″ of “dropdown” commands, i.e. “File”, “Edit” and so forth, and menu 204″ ofaction icons. Further, example end user interface 200″ includes sentitem view 206″ (i.e. a “folder content” view of the sent emails) having“To” column 208″, “Subject” column 210″, and “Date Sent” column 212″,listing sent emails 114. For the example illustration, emails 114 areordered based on the content of a listing field other than the addresseefield, i.e. the “To” column 212″.

In accordance with this embodiment of the present invention, theenhanced email program/service further includes enhancements 604 a or604 b that facilitate a user in requesting the non-addressee orderedlisting of emails be re-ordered by addressee as well as having thelisting expanded for all primary addressees (addressees of interest).More specifically, the listing entries for each primary addressee(addressee of interest) are to be expanded to include listing entriesfor emails where the addressee of interest is also a secondary or amember addressee of these emails.

In response, the enhanced email program/service of the present inventionexpands the listing entries 214″ accordingly, re-ordering the listingentries 214″ by addressee, if necessary. For each primary addressee(addressee of interest), the enhanced email program/service adds to thelisting entries 214″, additional listing entries where the addressee ofinterest is either a secondary or a member addressee (216 a″ and 216b″).

As the earlier described first and second embodiments, listing entry 216a″ represents an added listing entry where an addressee of interest(e.g. primary addressee “adam”) is addressed as a secondary addressee(not shown). The primary addressee of this email is exemplary primaryaddressee “frank”. Listing entries 216 b″ represent added listingentries where an addressee of interest (e.g. primary addressee “adam” or“jj”) is addressed as a member addressee (not explicitly shown). Theprimary addressee of this email- is exemplary group addressee “dept99”.

Similar to the earlier described embodiments, the request to re-orderand expand the listing entries is facilitated by displaying the request,e.g. “sort ascending expanded” 604 a, among a list of request/commandoptions 602 a–602 b and 604 a–604 b, in response to a user “rightclicking”, after having selected the addressee field, i.e. “To” column208″, using e.g. a cursor control device. Such facilitation is alsoknown in the art, and will not be further described.

Further, the supplemental listing entries are inserted directly belowthe supplemented listing entries of the addressee of interest.Additionally, the supplemental listing entries may be visuallydistinguished by techniques such as indentation, italicizing, and soforth.

Thus, it can be seen, the re-ordering and expansion of a listing toinclude listing entries identifying emails for all primary addressees(addressees of interest) where the addressees of interest are addressedas secondary or member addressees may be easily provided for the user,through a few mouse clicks (or equivalent key strokes). Accordingly,under the present invention, it is much easier (as compared to the priorart) for a user to order, locate or identify an email addressed to anaddressee of interest, independent of the addressing position or themanner the addressee of interest is addressed, as all emails of theaddressee of interest (within the “current” view, such as illustrated“sent” view 206″ of FIGS. 6 a–6 b) may be quickly listed for the user.

FIGS. 7 a–7 b illustrate operational flow 700 of the relevant aspects ofthe enhancements made to the email program/service of the presentinvention for the embodiment of FIGS. 6 a–6 b. As illustrated, inresponse to the receipt of a request 701 to re-order a listing ofemails, the enhanced email program/service first determines whether there-order request is to be performed with or without expansion (for allprimary addressees), block 702. If the re-order operation is to beperformed without expansion, the requested operation is a basic sortoperation. The enhanced email program/service performs the requestedre-order (without expansion) operation accordingly, block 704. Theoperation may be performed in accordance with any one of a number ofsort/order techniques known in the art.

However, if at block 702, the requested re-order operation is to beperformed with expansion (for all primary addressees), the enhancedemail program/service makes a first pass through listed entries 214,creating a working linked list for each unique primary addressee(addressee of interest), block 706. For the illustrated embodiment, theworking linked lists for the unique primary addressees are created andmaintained in an ordered manner, i.e. ascending or descending, dependingon the expanded re-order request. In other words, for an expandedascending re-order request, the working linked list for unique primaryaddressee “frank” will be created and maintained logically after theworking linked list for unique primary addressee “adam”. An exemplarylinked list data structure suitable for use as a working link list isillustrated in FIG. 8. Exemplary linked list 800 reflects a number ofdata 806 (pointers to emails) having been logically linked togetherusing record pointers 808. As those skilled in the art would appreciate,at its initial creation, linked list 800 basically includes uniqueprimary address 804 and terminating null pointer 810. Linked lists areknown in the art, and will not be further described. In alternateembodiments, other data structures may also be used instead.

Continuing with FIG. 7 a, having created the working linked lists forthe unique primary addressees, the enhanced email program/serviceselects and analyzes the emails one at time. For the illustratedembodiment, the program/service selects a “next” email for analysis,block 708, starting at the top of the list, and works towards the bottomof the list. In alternate embodiments, the processing may start from thebottom of the list and work towards the top of the list. In yet otherembodiments, the processing may start from an arbitrary point of thelist and work towards either the top or the bottom of the list, and“wraps” around.

At block 710, the program/service determines if the email being analyzedhas other secondary addressees. If yes, the program/service selects andanalyzes the next secondary addressee, block 712. At block 714, theprogram/service determines if the secondary addressee being analyzed isa group addressee. If so, the group addressee is expanded with itsmember addressees identified, block 716. Upon either determining thatthe secondary addressee is not a group addressee or upon expanding thegroup addressee, the program/service further determines if the secondaryaddressee or any of the member addressees matches any of the uniqueprimary addressees, block 718.

If the secondary addressee or one or more of the member addressees aredetermined to match one or more of the unique primary addressees, thecorresponding linked lists of the matching primary addressees areupdated to include pointers pointing to the email being analyzed,thereby logically associating the matching primary addressees to theemail being analyzed, block 720.

Upon determining that neither the secondary addressee nor any one of themember addressees matches any of the primary addressees, or uponupdating the applicable linked lists of the matching primary addressees,the program/service continues the process at block 710, determiningwhether the email being analyzed has additional secondary addresseesremain to be processed. Eventually, upon processing all secondaryaddressees of the email being analyzed, the determination performed atblock 710 results in a negative conclusion. Thereafter, the processcontinues at block 722 where the program/service determines if there aremore emails to analyze, block 722. If there are more emails to analyze,the process continues back at block 708, otherwise the process continuesat block 724, where the program/service enumerates the expanded listing,using the working linked lists to identify the supplemental emaillisting entries of the various unique primary addressees.

Accordingly, a listing of emails may be re-ordered and expanded at thesame time (for all primary addressees). More importantly, there-ordering and expansion may be requested by a user with a few mouseclicks (or equivalent key strokes), thereby allowing the user to be ableto easily re-order a listing of emails (within a view) by addressee, andlocate a email (within the view) addressed to an addressee, independentof the addressing position and/or manner the addressee is addressed.

In alternate embodiments, the expansion may be further expanded,including treating each unique addressee as an addressee of interest,regardless of whether the unique addressee is a primary, a secondary ora member addressee, thereby not limiting the supplemental listing entryexpansion to the primary addressees only. For unique addressees ofinterest that are addressed as secondary or member addressee only (suchas addressee “sarah” of FIG. 6 c), a pseudo primary addressee listingentry (218″ of FIG. 6 c) is created for each instance where one of suchunique addressees is only so addressed. For the illustrated embodiment,the pseudo primary addressee listing entry (218″ of FIG. 6 c) is createdwith the unique addressee of interest relocated or instantiated as theprimary addressee. Further, the fact that the primary addressee is a“relocated” secondary addressee or an “instantiated” member addressee isvisually distinguished by techniques such as italicizing, highlightingand so forth. Once created, the pseudo primary addressee listing entry(218″ of FIG. 6 c) may be processed in the earlier described process 700as other primary addressee listing entries (214″ of FIG. 6 c), havingother email listing entries where the pseudo primary addressee(addressee of interest) is addressed as either a secondary or memberaddressee duplicated (216 c″ of FIG. 6 c) and associated with the pseudoprimary addressee listing entry (218″ of FIG. 6 c).

Example Computer System

FIG. 9 illustrates an example computer system suitable for use topractice the present invention, in accordance with one embodiment.Example computer system 900 may be used for practicing either the clientor the server portion of a client/server implementation of the enhancedemail program/service of the present invention. As shown, computersystem 900 includes one or more processors 902 and system memory 904.Additionally, computer system 900 includes mass storage devices 906(such as diskette, hard drive, CDROM and so forth), input/output devices908 (such as keyboard, cursor control and so forth) and communicationinterfaces 010 (such as network interface cards, modems and so forth).The elements are coupled to each other via system bus 912, whichrepresents one or more buses. In the case of multiple buses, they arebridged by one or more bus bridges (not shown). Each of these elementsperforms its conventional functions known in the art. In particular,system memory 904 and mass storage 906 are employed to store a workingcopy and a permanent copy of the programming instructions implementingthe client/server portion of the enhanced emailed program/service of thepresent invention. The permanent copy of the programming instructionsmay be loaded into mass storage 906 in the factory, or in the field, asdescribed earlier, through a distribution medium (not shown) or throughcommunication interface 910 (from a distribution server (not shown). Theconstitution of these elements 902–912 are known, and accordingly willnot be further described.

CONCLUSION AND EPILOGUE

Thus, it can be seen from the above descriptions, a method and apparatusfor expanded addressee sort/listing for emails has been described. Whilethe present invention has been described in terms of the aboveillustrated embodiments, those skilled in the art will recognize thatthe invention is not limited to the embodiments described. The presentinvention can be practiced with modification and alteration within thespirit and scope of the appended claims. The description is thus to beregarded as illustrative instead of restrictive on the presentinvention.

1. A method of operation on an electronic device, comprising: displayingon the electronic device, one or more messages having an addresseeaddressed as a primary addressee; and re-displaying on the electronicdevice, in response to receipt of an indication by the electronicdevice, the one or more messages supplemented with one or moreadditional messages where the addressee is addressed as a secondaryaddressee.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the displaying furthercomprises displaying on the electronic device, one or more othermessages having one or more other addressee addressed as primaryaddressees, before and/or after the one or more messages; and there-displaying further comprises correspondingly re-displaying on theelectronic device, the one or more other messages before and/or afterthe one or more messages.
 3. The method of claim 1, further comprisingdisplaying on the electronic device, an end user interface element tofacilitate provision of the indication to the electronic device.
 4. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising receiving by the electronic devicea selection of the addressee.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the oneor more messages comprise one or more sent emails.
 6. An apparatus,comprising: logic configured to display, one or more messages having anaddressee addressed as a primary addressee; and the logic is furtherconfigured to re-display, in response to receipt of an indication, theone or more messages supplemented with one or more additional messageswhere the addressee is addressed as a secondary addressee.
 7. Theapparatus of claim 6, wherein the logic is further configured to displayone or more other messages having one or more other addressee addressedas primary addressees, before and/or after the one or more messages, andcorrespondingly re-display the one or more other messages before and/orafter the one or more messages.
 8. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein thelogic is further configured to display an end user interface element tofacilitate provision of the indication.
 9. The apparatus of claim 6,wherein the logic is further configured to receive a selection of theaddressee.
 10. An article of manufacture, comprising: storage medium;and programming instructions stored in the storage medium, configured toprogram an apparatus to enable the method as set forth in claim 1 to beperformed on the apparatus.
 11. A system, comprising: a display; aprocessor; and a module configured to be operated by the processor torender on the display, one or more messages having an addresseeaddressed as a primary addressee; and the module is further configuredto be operated by the processor to re-display, in response to receipt ofan indication, the one or more messages supplemented with one or moreadditional messages where the addressee is addressed as a secondaryaddressee.
 12. The system of claim 11, wherein the module is furtherconfigured to render on the display one or more other messages havingone or more other addressee addressed as primary addressees, beforeand/or after the one or more messages, and correspondingly re-render onthe display the one or more other messages before and/or after the oneor more messages.
 13. The system of claim 11, wherein the module isfurther configured to render on the display an end user interfaceelement to facilitate provision of the indication.
 14. The system ofclaim 11, wherein the module is further configured to receive aselection of the addressee.